Photos: Greek sculptor fashions an army of gods from terracotta

Jan 12, 2018 13:21 IST

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Sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas carries out of a furnace the bust of Homer, whom Greek tradition named as the author of the Iliad and Odysseyat his workshop, in the Egaleo suburb of Athens. Goumas, 67, is a man who fashions gods out of clay — a reversal of most ancient creation myths in which the gods make man. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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Two terracotta busts of a Caryatid and the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena, are seen among other broken pieces in Haralambos Goumas' workshop. Over the past half-century, he has produced thousands of terracotta statues of ancient Greek deities, mythical figures and fabulous beasts, mostly for use as architectural and garden ornaments. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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Rays of sunlight shine on Haralambos Goumas as he works in his workshop. His pieces are a rare survival of a vanishing art in recession-plagued Greece, all made by hand using traditional techniques in a western Athens workshop squeezed in among warehouses, small industries and a railyard. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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Goumas works on a huge terracotta eagle in a mould at his workshop. “I guess that in my lifetime I have made many more statues than those in China’s Terracotta Army,” Goumas told the Associated Press. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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A bust of the ancient Greek messenger of the gods, Hermes (L), stands among other statues and antefixes in Goumas' workshop. Scattered apparently randomly is an Athena here, a horse or a satyr there, among bulls’ heads, griffins, sphinxes, garden urns or busts of the philosopher Socrates and the 19th-century Greek poet Dionysios Solomos. There’s even a Christ somewhere. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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A dog lies next to a terracotta statue of Erato, one of the nine Muses of ancient Greek mythology. Most of Goumas’ works draw from the neoclassical tradition that dominated Greek urban architecture from the 1830s to the 1920s, and was blitzed during unbridled post-World War II redevelopment. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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Haralambos Goumas works on a terracotta eagle, at his workshop. Once rejected as trite remnants of an irrelevant past, the original neoclassical terracotta statues that decorated facades, niches and pediments are now highly-prized antiques. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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Pensioner Panayotis Goumas, 74, helps his brother Haralambos in his workshop. The tenth of 12 children, Haralambos was born next to the workshop — initially his father’s porcelain fittings business — then still surrounded by vineyards and orchards, with the Acropolis dominating the landscape. All his brothers worked here at some point, though he is the only one to have persevered. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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Haralambos Goumas feels the surface of a statue of Hermes. “It’s very hard, physically demanding work,” he said. “It’s not so easy to breathe in the smoke from the furnace, or lift these very heavy statues — some weigh 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and the moulds can reach 300 kilograms.” (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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Goumas works on detailing a terracotta statue of Hermes. Although past retirement age, he hopes to continue working and at the same time to create a school for young artists on the site. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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Haralambos Goumas works on a terracotta flower pot decorated with the face of Poseidon, the ancient Greek god of the sea at his workshop. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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Goumas looks into the fire as he tries to control the temperature of the furnace in his workshop. “Then I’ll never have to leave this place,” he said, provided he can raise the necessary funds. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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Like the 2,200-year old, life-sized sculptures of about 9,000 soldiers and imperial officials dug up in northwestern China, many of Goumas’ pieces stand in tidy ranks, in a yard fronting the long, metal-roofed shed with its old-fashioned wood-fired furnace where he works. (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

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A pickup truck drives on a street in Athens carrying one of Haralambos Goumas’ creations --a terracotta statue of Zeus, chief among the ancient Greek pantheon. “I have made so many gods that I believe one or other will help me. (Otherwise,) what did I make them all for?” (Petros Giannakouris / AP)

about the gallery

Over the past half-century, sculptor and ceramicist Haralambos Goumas has produced thousands of neoclassical terracotta statues ranging from ancient Greek deities to mythical figures and fabulous beasts, inverting the myths of creation at a workshop he took over from his father.